Court declines to hear plea against RAW officials

New Delhi, May 13 (IANS) Delhi High Court Wednesday declined to hear a petition seeking action against 19 senior officials of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for allegedly leaking confidential information that was subsequently passed on to the US. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Neeraj Kishan Kaul refused to pass any order after the petitioner R.K. Yadav, a former employee of RAW, failed to produce any evidence to substantiate his allegations against the senior officials.

Yadav, in his petition, said that 20 RAW employees were involved in leaking information but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a complaint only against Ravinder Singh, a senior officer of the intelligence agency, who was declared as proclaimed offender by a court here.

The court, however, was not satisfied with his contention and said: “If you have prima-facie evidence against the officers, we will issue notice or else we can ask them (Centre) to look into the matter.”

Giving a list of 19 senior RAW officers, Yadav in his petition alleged that five senior officers had helped Singh flee from the country and the rest had supplied classified information to him. Singh in turn had allegedly passed on the confidential documents to the US.

Singh, a joint secretary-level officer who has been untraceable since 2004, was under surveillance of the counter-intelligence wing of RAW after he was caught on-camera in his office for allegedly photocopying top-secret documents and other operational details of the agency.